I'm fairly certain the CH system at my girlfriend's house is in dire need of flushing because this last winter the system was very slow to heat the house up and all the rads on the ground floor had very sooty water when I bled them, upstairs ones not so much. The pump was also making more noise than I remember in previous years. The house is a 4 bed detached built about 25-30yrs ago and the CH system is an open vented one.
So firstly, would you agree the system needs flushing? If so my second question is about draining the system: I can't find any obvious system drain point, there are suitable drain cocks on the in and outlet to the boiler but they are at ceiling height on the ground floor so presumably would only allow the upstairs to be drained. Unless there's a drain cock behind a wall or under the floor boards, the only thing I've noticed is that all the rads on the ground floor have a connector as shown on the attached picture. It has a square valve like a bleed screw inside so I'm guessing you can open it up with a bleed key and then stick a tube on it, it sounds like a bit of a pain to have to go round each rad though. Any thoughts on whether this was the intention of the installer?
Last question: if I decided it was too much to take on myself, what sort of ballpark price am I looking at to get someone in to flush the system?
Ta.
So firstly, would you agree the system needs flushing? If so my second question is about draining the system: I can't find any obvious system drain point, there are suitable drain cocks on the in and outlet to the boiler but they are at ceiling height on the ground floor so presumably would only allow the upstairs to be drained. Unless there's a drain cock behind a wall or under the floor boards, the only thing I've noticed is that all the rads on the ground floor have a connector as shown on the attached picture. It has a square valve like a bleed screw inside so I'm guessing you can open it up with a bleed key and then stick a tube on it, it sounds like a bit of a pain to have to go round each rad though. Any thoughts on whether this was the intention of the installer?
Last question: if I decided it was too much to take on myself, what sort of ballpark price am I looking at to get someone in to flush the system?
Ta.